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Grazing on hair?
- Thread starter Nickjr000
- Start date
if you tanks big enoung some tangs will graze while its small. i have a starry blenny that totally eraticated my hair algae, you could also try an algae blenny. not the most colorful fish in the tank, but they eat more greens than a goat. truthfully, if your getting that much algae you have some sort of problems with your levels (nitrate, nitrite, phosphate)or too much light. i would run some chemipure in your sump and knock your lights back to 8-9 hours a day at most....and no direct sunlight
you can also try siphoning your water off your liverock when you do a change. alot of food gets in the porus rock. if your feeding frozen thaw it and rinse it in normal water. the water frozen food comes in normally had alot of phosphate in it
Nickjr000 said:
i like the siphon suggestion by scotty. At least I hope it works for me...lol. That stated everything i've read about blenny's is that they are characters/fun to have. The only potential downside is if you introduce tridacnid clams - the blenny may bug the clam or worse take a bite out of the clam tissue. Just my 2 cents.
yeah blennys are great. by far my favorite fish. they have TONS of personality and keep the algae in check. imo you cant find a fish with a better personality
Nick you should of got 1 of my tangs they ate it like a kid eating candy
I was thinkin of getting a tang from you but they were big boys! I'm startin small with this tank. I do rinse my frozen food cause I know it has phosphates. I actually got three emeralds yesterday from Dr. Jim and I placed them on the hair. They were chowin down immediately! This morning a lot of hair was gone! Didn't even think they ate hair. Couple more nights they should wipe it out if they stay put.
I was going through a similar problem with hair algae. Still am actually, but it's getting cleaned up at a decent pace now. Now that I've replaced my fading bulbs and added a cleanup crew, it's fading rather than spreading. ;D
I've found that large turbo snails and blue leg hermits are a good combination of cleaning it up. I also recently got a "fuzzy chiton" which helps a bit. He's about the size of a dime and when he starts eating he can clean about 8-10 square inches of rock per day... and I mean he makes the rocks bald as Kojak! The only problem is that he eats one day and then just sits there for a couple days before starting again.
The large turbos are good for cleaning large surfaces (glass sides of tank, overflow walls, flat rocks, etc.) The hermits are great for picking it out of the sand and getting in the small cracks in your live rock. Turbos will also scour your rocks and do a good job on them, but if you keep an eye on them and direct them to the big areas that need it most, they will feast on those for a while.
I have no experience with blenny's yet, but may try one soon.
I've found that large turbo snails and blue leg hermits are a good combination of cleaning it up. I also recently got a "fuzzy chiton" which helps a bit. He's about the size of a dime and when he starts eating he can clean about 8-10 square inches of rock per day... and I mean he makes the rocks bald as Kojak! The only problem is that he eats one day and then just sits there for a couple days before starting again.
The large turbos are good for cleaning large surfaces (glass sides of tank, overflow walls, flat rocks, etc.) The hermits are great for picking it out of the sand and getting in the small cracks in your live rock. Turbos will also scour your rocks and do a good job on them, but if you keep an eye on them and direct them to the big areas that need it most, they will feast on those for a while.
I have no experience with blenny's yet, but may try one soon.
I got it when we had a group buy from here: Reefcleaners.org... but to buy that alone would not be worth it with shipping costs IMO.
They say it "destroys" algae, but mine doesn't really. Like I said, it does a good job one day, then goes dormant for a few days.
They say it "destroys" algae, but mine doesn't really. Like I said, it does a good job one day, then goes dormant for a few days.